US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) promising continue the campaign to post memes and a set of materials based on images of pop culture, including from the world of video games. This happened a few days after that, and the White House posted images on social media depicting President Trump as the playable character Master Chiefand job advertisements encouraging potential ICE agents to “destroy the flood” [sic] (a reference to the Flood, the zombie antagonists from the Halo series).
This promise suggests that more game developers and industry professionals may see the games they work on used by the US government for recruiting or promotion purposes. unproven claims high crime rate caused by illegal immigrants. Game File spoke with a number of former Halo franchise developers who condemned the postsand former series Jaime Griesemer called the DHS ad “should offend every Halo fan, regardless of political orientation.”
Information about DHS's plans came from a comment sent to freelance journalist Alyssa Mercantewho asked the agency for comment on the impromptu advertising campaign. “We will bring content to people that they can relate to and relate to, whether it's Halo, Pokémon, Lord of the Rings or any other medium,” an agency spokesperson said, adding that it was “laser-focused” on promoting messages that highlight the aforementioned unproven claims about crime rates among immigrants.
Microsoft declined to comment on the Halo-related reports, Mercante and other journalists said.
Trump Administration Continues to Perpetuate Gaming 'Meme Culture'
Earlier, Mercante received a comment from the White House, which noted the end of the “console wars” declared by the President of the United States. GameStop X Account on Friday after Microsoft announced Halo: Campaign Progression debuts on PlayStation 5 as well as Xbox Series X|S. Hours later, GameStop posted several holiday doctored images of President Trump with Master Chief.
The Department of Homeland Security has previously called for the spirit of video games in a series of social media posts in September 2025 drawing on imagery and slogans from the Pokémon franchise. The Pokémon Company (which is partly owned by Nintendo) distanced itself from the posts, saying that “it was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and no permission was given to use our intellectual property.”
These posts followed a number of promotional images earlier in 2025 promoting President Trump's agenda through the lens of Disney series “Star Wars”AI-generated images inspired by Studio Ghibli. Neither company has made any statements following these reports, although a number musicians consistently opposed the use of their work by the administration.
Given DHS's habit of moving from pop culture reference to pop culture reference, other developers may find their work used to advance its policies in the next few years.
The game developer has reached out to Microsoft for comment on this story and will provide an update when the company responds.
